It is well-known that conventional burial practice involves the use of a single casket. The deceased is placed in the casket, which is then used for a variety of purposes such as public viewing, burial or cremation. For example, the casket may be publicly viewed at a funeral service, wake or an assembly of family and other bereaved persons. In some instances, the casket may be opened to permit direct viewing of the deceased by those in attendance. At the conclusion of such assemblies, the casket may be transferred to a gravesite where, possibly after another service or like assembly, the casket may be lowered into the ground or a burial vault. The casket may, in fact, be transported to multiple services or assemblies in remote locations. For example, the gravesite may be a great distance from the service or funeral home, necessitating significant travel or transportation of the casket. As a further example, the family of the deceased may have burial services in two or more locations before a graveside service. Moreover, it is not uncommon for a casket and the interred deceased to be transported over great distances to multiple locations for multiple viewings, services or other assemblies.
Funeral arrangements may vary according to the traditions employed. One tradition is for the casket to be lowered into the ground opening or burial vault at the gravesite. Such lowering of the casket is conventionally accomplished by a lowering device having rollers and cross-straps. The straps are wound about the rollers and extend across the opening or the top of a burial vault or the ground into which the casket is to be lowered. The casket is placed on top of the rollers so as to be suspended above the vault or ground opening. The rollers are then turned, either mechanically or by hand, to unwrap the straps and correspondingly lower the casket into the hole or burial vault. Once the casket is in place, the straps are removed from underneath the casket and the casket sits directly on the ground or the vault floor.
There are various other traditions. For example, one known tradition permits family members or others to shovel dirt onto the casket prior to its eventual and final burial. In another tradition, the casket and deceased are cremated instead of being buried. In either event, the casket is used entirely for that deceased person and cannot be reused in any manner. Each of these traditions is critical to the bereaved who seek to honor the deceased in a manner acceptable to their respective faith and culture. Thus, a key consideration of purchasing or using a casket is that it offers the bereaved the opportunity to choose which tradition they think best to honor the deceased. Conventional caskets have consistently met this need.
The bereaved persons responsible for making funeral arrangements understandably seek to provide an aesthetically pleasing, decorative casket suitable for the particular tradition to be employed. Conventional caskets, however, are expensive items due to a variety of factors. One factor is the cost of materials. Conventional caskets are made of a wide range of materials including, but not limited to, steel, bronze copper or mahogany hardwood. A second consideration is labor cost. Top of the line conventional caskets are exceptionally decorative. It requires the finest craftsman and other skilled labor to produce such caskets. Thus, while the conventional casket has met the needs of consumers, they are expensive and the cost of such caskets has influenced the consumer, sometimes negatively.
At a time of bereavement, those persons attending to funeral and burial arrangements are faced with the tension of honoring the deceased at a cost commensurate with their or the deceased's financial capability. The purchase of an elaborate, decorative conventional casket is simply too great for many people. Accordingly, those persons who are making the funeral arrangements must often settle for a lower quality casket and forego the opportunity to conduct the services and assemblies mentioned hereinabove in the preferred manner. Furthermore, for casket manufacturers, the cost of the raw materials (steel, bronze, copper, mahogany, etc.) and skilled labor is ever increasing. As a result, the cost of conventional caskets to both the manufacturer and the purchaser continues to climb. Even so, competitive forces in the marketplace are forcing casket manufacturers and others in the industry such as jobbers and funeral directors to reduce profit margins on quality caskets. Thus, while the demand for quality caskets is still strong, the industry professional is incurring greater costs and reduced profits on the highest quality metal and hard wood caskets. As the cost of such high quality caskets increases, an ever increasing number of consumers are precluded from selecting the casket they would prefer to honor the deceased.
In order to address at least some of these problems, there have been several suggestions in the art for a reusable casket that addresses this tension. Reusable caskets providing an outer shell and an inner coffin for burial purposes have been proposed. There are many examples of such proposals, including U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,128,865; 3,050,818; 2,289,406, 3,133,334; 3,613,189; 3,654,676; 3,810,282; 3,815,185; 4,063,337; 4,139,929; 4,151,630; 4,177,543; 4,237,590; 4,249,289; 4,265,006; 4,337,556; 4,727,632; 4,788,757; 5,349,727 and 5,481,785. The structures disclosed in these patents could potentially achieve the intended result. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,050,818 shows a combination of an outer casket with a detachable base or an outer bottomless casket and an inner casket. As a further example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,481,785 discloses an inner capsule preferably molded of curable plastic that is retained by pins within an ornate outer shell.
These devices permit reuse of the outer shell. More particularly, each of these and the other prior art devices attempt to overcome the problem of expense by providing inexpensive inner liners capsules with reusable outer decorative shells. However, these prior art devices fail to offer the range of traditions afforded by conventional caskets and, perhaps more importantly, further fail to present a quality casket in which funeral directors can assure the integrity of burial services while offering a choice of quality caskets of traditional appearance and quality. For example, cremation is becoming an increasingly popular burial tradition. Many of these reusable caskets fail to accommodate this tradition. Many of these reusable caskets further fail to adequately permit lowering of the inner liner into the ground or a burial vault in such a manner as to maintain the dignity associated with this tradition. Further, as modern society becomes even more mobile and extended families are dispersed about greater areas, many gravesites are significantly distanced from the funeral home. The cost of transporting a conventional casket over any meaningful distance is significant.
A critical concern to burial service professionals such as funeral directors and the like is the integrity of the burial service. The industry professional seeks to minimize any intrusion into the service so that the focus remains on honoring the deceased. Thus, any unnecessary interruption or needless handling of the casket is avoided. Of course, it is imperative that the casket perform as intended so as not to cause embarrassment or other awkwardness. A significant concern with many reusable caskets as identified above involves placement of the deceased into the ground or a burial vault. It is unseemly to place the combined unit into the ground and then retrieve the outer shell. It is desirable to lower the deceased into the ground or vault with a minimum number of steps. In other words, it is desirable to lower the portion of a reusable casket into the ground without need for removing the outer shell in full public view. Further, several of these reusable caskets did not adequately insure against any inadvertent disassembly or the casket while the unit was suspended over a ground opening or burial vault. It is believed that such concerns have in large part prevented funeral professionals from utilizing such reusable caskets.
Moreover, many reusable caskets fail to address the need for localized transportation of the reusable assembly about a funeral home or church, etc. Such localized transportation is typically accomplished on a cart or the like. The casket, oftentimes including the deceased, is placed upon the cart, which is in turn wheeled about the facility for placement in a particular location. Such transportation is often done in full view of the family or even at a service in the presence of many hundreds of attendees. Obviously, the potential for inappropriate handling of the deceased is increased in such assemblies as bottomless coffins and similar other prior art reusable devices are proposed. The funeral corrector and all others associated with the burial must be able to insure the integrity of the coffin and, accordingly, the burial service. Similar considerations exist for travel over great distances. While such travel may not necessarily be in front of family members or others, it is nonetheless unseemly for the deceased to be disturbed in the event of shipment by rail, air or other means of transportation. For these and other reasons, the trade has been slow to accept reusable caskets, regardless of potential cast savings to both the consumer and the industry.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for an improved reusable casket assembly that not only addresses the cost issue, which has heretofore been recognized, but which also provides the ability to address various traditions in a dignified manner typically associated with conventional caskets. Such other traditions include cremation and dignified lowering of the casket into a burial vault or the ground through use of conventional equipment. Further, there is a need in the art for a reusable casket that recognizes and addresses the costs associated with transportation of the assembly on both a local and remote basis.